Recall
by Yaodai
Summary: Aizen had a plan. It wasn't even a complicated one. All he wanted to do was to toy around with the newest of the Academy flock. Obviously, nothing went according to his plan.
1. Murphy Is Always There

**"Recall"**

_"Slumber, watcher, till the spheres,  
Six and twenty thousand years_  
_Have revolv'd, and I return_  
_To the spot where now I burn._  
_The veil wears thin. The years come crowding in._  
_The veil wears thin. The years come crowding in._  
_Who were you the last time you lived?_  
_Who were you the last time that you lived?"_

"Polaris/Recall (By H.P. Lovecraft)" by Leslie Fish

**Chapter 1**  
**Murphy Is Always There**

There was no discussion with Hinamori Momo once she set her mind on something. Right now, she wanted Hisagi Shuuhei to stay alive and to do so, they all had to turn on their heels and run towards the danger instead of away from it like a sane person would.

The Hollows were hanging over the clearing like a swarm of giant, white flies, their shapes monstrous and mask twisted in vicious grimaces. Their spiritual pressure was strong enough to push the grass to the ground hard enough it was completely flat. The surface of the lake nearby was also changed by it, the surface uneasy, waves dancing all over it, flashing white in the darkness.

They were only Academy students. It was their first time out too and they were only supposed to wander around for a bit, having their first taste of the world of the living.

Only, the supposedly safe area suddenly turned into a nightmare right in front of their eyes and two of the people who were supposed to keeping them safe were already dead. The third one, Hisagi, told them to run. Which was exactly the thing they were not doing.

Hinamori launched herself forward, painfully aware of the fact that they were still just a Freshmen. She couldn't even use her most powerful spell, partially because it could hurt Hisagi and partially because she hadn't trained it yet. Instead, she focused on the easiest kido she knew, the first one Academy students learned. It was just pushing away the enemies, not even doing any damage at all... but it would get the job done. She just needed the Hollows away from the senior student for a short moment. She repeated the incantation once again, feeling the force bubbling under her skin as the reiatsu in her hand fought to be freed. Kido spells were funny this way, the more you repeated the lines, the stronger they got. Only, they had to be freed eventually, because keeping them in hand too long usually ended up in nasty ways.

"Hadou number One!" Momo shouted. "Shou!"

The force pushed her backwards and she bumped into Renji who was just behind her. But the Hollow swarm was also pushed aside, far just enough to let Hisagi safely flash-step towards them.

"I told you guys to run!" he barked.

"Run where?" Izuru asked with a sigh, while taking a position in the formation. All four of them were now standing back to back.

"Good job with the spell," Hisagi admitted his defeat. "You good with number 31 by any chance?"

"Sorry!" Renji immediately answered.

"Heard the stories," Shuuhei snickered a little.

"I can do it," Momo admitted, her eyes not leaving the Hollows for even a moment. "But I'm afraid my range is much shorter than it supposed to be."

"Can't do that," Kira said. "But I'm decent with Byakurai and can Shou without incantation."

"Don't try it," Hisagi warned him. "Doubt that would be enough, those suckers are pretty strong. You two smash these in range with Kido. Abarai, your job is to hit these that managed to get too close; try to break the mask if you can."

Renji confirmed, narrowing his eyes and waiting for the first Hollow to die under his blade, his mind automatically following the spell incantation.

_"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"_

Shakkahou was one of the spells everyone who was at least a few months in the Academy knew. People liked their shinigami to have at least one trick up their sleeve that offered a decent range and a big amount of power. First the students went through few Bakudo and Barrier spells, just to get a grasp on controlling the power and then they were thrown right into casting fireballs at the shooting range.

Renji's kido went three ways. It was either not working at all, it was blowing up in his face - literally - or it was doing something it definitely wasn't supposed to do. The Kido teacher still had no idea what in the world went wrong with that Hainawa spell Renji tried a month ago. It was supposed to bind the mannequin in front of him, not grab and then throw a chair at it.

This definitely wasn't the time to play the usual roulette and check if he could use this in real fight. Anything that went wrong, anything that could throw off the others - and they all will end up dead.

The first spell flew away as soon as Shuuhei finished reciting the lines, casting a red light over the clearing. A moment later, an explosion blossomed right in the middle of Hollow mass, hungrily swallowing their inhuman bodies. a whole bunch of them rushed forward, only to face yet another Shakkahou.

Renji wasn't sure how many of them were destroyed in the fiery onslaught, but there still was a horde of them for them to face. One managed to crept right next to their group and Renji saw the hungry expression on it before he smashed his sword into the mask with all his might. The mask was hard and his sword screeched in protest. Then it broke with a crack and his blade went much deeper than he expected. The flesh underneath wasn't hard at all.

Why nobody told him how it felt when his sword entered a body?!, Renji thought with fury, trying to fight of sudden nausea.

"Good job!" Hisagi said. "Now, rotate!"

Standing in one place with so many enemies swarming around was a bad idea. Slowly moving around, rotating so all of them were oriented in the situation at all the times at least gave them a chance to wait for someone to check what was going on. someone surely noticed the sudden spike in Hollow reiatsu by now.

"Crap!" Hisagi suddenly cursed.

Renji blinked and then saw that too. One of the Hollows, a bigger one, with way to many hands to even look human, was doing something. A dark-red light shone through its long, bony fingers.

"Spread, now!"

He had no other choice than just desperately dash forward and roll to the side, hoping to survive, while the air right over his head was cut with a blade made of red light. The beam exploded right over the lake.

Did a lake just fell on me?, Renji though, wiping the unpleasant, hot wetness from his face. His ears were ringing and he barely could hear anything at all.

No time to be shocked now! Renji forced himself to stand up and looked around, searching for his friends.

His eyes widened. Kira and Momo were not that far away, the girl helping the noble to stand up, but a menacing figure was right behind them and they were oblivious to it.

Renji thrown himself forward, barely in time to shield tem with his own sword. The angle of the hit was different than he expected and the monster pushed him away with ease. Renji smacked into Izuru and both of them landed on the ground.

"Shou!" Momo shouted, using the opportunity to force the Hollow away. "You guys okay?"

Her breath was heavy, her usually neat ponytails in disarray and her clothes looked like she spend the last five minutes rolling in the mud. But besides that, she wasn't hurt.

"'m fine!" Kira said, already up and positioning himself so he could have their back. "Where's Hisagi?"

"Dunno," Renji shook his head. "I think it blew him someplace further."

"Crap."

It was a complete different thing to face the Hollows with Hisagi and to trying to do so on their own. Shuuhei had already experience with fighting Hollows, while they were still trying to hit the unmoving target on the range field. Mastered his swordsmanship, while they were stuck at repeating basic moves and only starting on the meditation training needed to communicate with their zanpakutou. Without Hisagi, they were...

The Hollows knew that too. They were forming a tight ring around them, slowly enough so the young shinigami could tell what exactly was going on and what was to come.

"Shit," Kira muttered and Renji could feel his shoulders to start shaking. "Shit, shit, shit!"

It was hard to not agree with him. All Renji could see were hollows, their eyes gleaming hungrily under these horrifying masks, all he could hear was the inhuman, high-pitched chuckle of the monsters and his own frantic heartbeat.

I don't want to, a childish part of Renji protested. I don't want to die! Not now! Not like that!

He heard too many horror stories about Hollows slowly tearing their victims apart, limb after limb, before finally, in a horrifying parody of mercy, swallowing what was left of their prey.

Oddly enough, their players were answered.

With a soft click, a Senkaimon opened not too far from where the three of them were standing and Captain Aizen walked into the clearing. The light was dancing on the surface of his glasses, obscuring his eyes from their vision, but his characteristic, gentle smile was firmly in place.

"My, my!" Gin, who walked through the portal just behind his commanding officer chuckled. "Aren't you in a pickle!"

"Ichimaru," Aizen warned the lieutenant.

"Right," the man didn't look guilty at all. "I deeply apologize. Should I deal with the Hollows now?"

"Go find Shuuhei Hisagi," Captain said with a subtle shake of his head. "He's such a good boy, it would be a shame if he got hurt, right?"

Gin nodded and flash-stepped away, while Aizen reached for his zanpakutou. Renji had no idea when the Captain drew his sword or even when he moved; the man was so fast, the eyes of the mere Academy students were unable to follow his movement. All Renji knew was the fact that the Hollows started to die left and right, their dying screeches filling the clearing with mad cacophony.

Renji's shoulders slumbered and, for the first time since the battle started, he felt like he could breathe with ease once again. He wasn't the only one who felt the wave of relief. Hinamori was standing only because she was holding onto his sleeve, while Kira leaned on his sword like a very old, very tired man, his blond, a bit too long hair were sticking to his face.

It seems that he wasn't the only one who got caught in a hot shower, Renji thought, letting an amused smile spread on his lips. That, was going to be one hell of a story. Rukia probably is going to murder him for almost dying like that, without her around.

He noticed Ichimaru Gin leading Hisagi towards the group, while the Captain nonchalantly chopped the few of the remaining Hollows that had not enough self–preservation instincts to run away while the others were being obliterated.

Feeling no need for the naked blade anymore, Renji sheathed his weapon and the rest of the group did the same. The battle was over.

Or not. Captain Aizen opened his mouth to speak to them, but before the first word came out, something tremendous grew in between them and the Shinigami. It was so much bigger than a normal Hollow that it obscured the Captain completely from their vision, leaving them staring right into the void.

It wasn't exactly dark. Most of it looked like it lacked any color at all, but then, there were white–hot spiderwebs of lightning crawling through the space soundlessly, while bluish, amoeba–like structures floated around aimlessly.

Renji had trouble with tearing his gaze away from the void and Momo seemed to be as much overwhelmed by its presence as he was. The void was framed by whitish structure with odd, complex patterns covering its surface. It looked flat, too. Paper thin flat. The top of the odd structure was a bit wider than the rest of it. The pattern seemed to wrap itself around a plain, bended line, that looked almost like a crescent shape of the moon. It suddenly opened and stared right at them.

Then the creature bended over and in one, lightning fast movement, it feel right in top of them, swallowing them into the lightning filled void.

Oddly enough, they were the ones doing the actual falling. Upwards.

xxx

"...what in the world?" Aizen asked. With a worried frown on his face, he stepped forward, but the students were nowhere to be seen and it didn't look like the monster was coming back either. His brow furrowed deeper and, for the split of a second, a mask slipped off his face, revealing the cold and calculating glare. Something definitely didn't go according to a plan.

"My, my..." Gin sighed, partially because it was a sigh truly worth seeing, the master of lies standing there completely dumbstruck and partially because he needed to warn him before Hisagi noticed that something was off about good Captain. Hisagi was a good kid, after all. It would be a shame to kill him off only because someone couldn't keep his face in check.

"This is... unexpected," Gin continued. The amused tone of his voice definitely caught the kid's attention, because now Hisagi was staring at him with partially horrified expression. Partially, because there definitely was a lot of fury too. "I never saw anything like that before."

"H-how can you be so cold?!" the young shinigami tripped on his words. "Those were kids! It was supposed to be a safe training trip and I couldn't-!"

"Shush," Aizen said gently, laying a hand on Hisagi's shoulder, the gentle persona back in its place. "We don't know anything yet, not for sure. I'm planning on going straight to the Twelfth Division as soon as we return to the Seireitei."

Hisagi's eyes widened. "You... think they are still alive?!"

"It looked somewhat like a Garganta," Ichimaru shrugged. Then looked around. "My, my. We really shouldn't leave those just lying around, do we?"

He gestured towards the swords rather than bodies of the fallen senior students. The bodies were invisible for human eyes and were going to turn into reiatsu anyway. The kid, reminded of such harsh reality shuddered visibly, but then pulled herself together and straightened his back and marched towards fallen friends, to carefully pick up their zanpakutou's.

"Would you like me to talk to their close ones?" Aizen asked softly.

"No," Shuuhei shook his head. "If anyone can get to the bottom of this, it's definitely you, Captain."

Guilt trip, Gin decided. The kid was definitely guilt tripping himself even now, for letting his friends die and then leading three dumb kids to the exact same fate. Brat was definitely for a hell of a ride, but if suffering was what he wanted...

Gin shrugged.

"Just remember to stop by the Fourth too," Aizen reminded the kid, while Gin was occupied with opening the Senkaimon. "Your wound doesn't look deep, but better safe, than sorry."

Hisagi's hand moved towards his face in a knee-jerk reaction. His fingers touched the bloodied skin and then jerked away, surprised by the sudden pang of pain.

Gin shook his head with amusement. The kid was so easy to read!

xxx

It wasn't a bad day for Rukia, but it could definitely go better. while Renji was having a blast on his first time out in the human world, for the first time in his life using his zanpakutou to help lost souls pass on, she was stuck in the Academy, where one of the teachers once again pointed out how poor her Zanjutsu skills were. Not that he wasn't right, Rukia was miserable with a sword in her hand, the blade too long and too heavy for her to swing with ease like the others did.

It was probably the only thing that kept her out of the Accelerated Class Renji managed to got himself into.

They still shared most of the lectures, which was good; Renji's schedule was so packed it was hard to find time to actually sit down and talk. And talking, definitely was very, very important. Among the noble kids and people from the mid-Rukon, they were sticking out like a sore thumb. Renji especially, with his ridiculous height and bright red hair. His personality wasn't helping either.

Luckily enough, Renji managed to smash his face into the just right grave marking. Izuru Kira, who was just visiting his parents grave, happened to be a very nice person and decided to take two Inuzuri street rats under his wing. Rukia couldn't help herself and asked about his reasons.

"It would be stupid to not help you," he answered with a small shrug. "We all want to be shinigami, no? We are going to be comrades in arms. I think we already are."

"...so, you want us to have your back?" Rukia asked carefully.

"I never was outside the walls of Seireitei," Kira admitted without a shame. "And there are missions far in the Rukongai all the time. Besides, what sort of a man pick on his comrades?"

Izuru Kira was an idealist. Sort of. He tended to see the world in dark colors, but it also made him reach towards people, hoping to add something brighter to the palette. Rukia didn't want to argue too much. They really needed all the help they could get and they needed it now.

Several months later even Renji managed to somewhat fit, even if he still had his little overenthusiastic moments in class. But making fun of him because of that was like kicking a puppy, so people got bored with it, eventually. Besides, they quickly discovered that Renji was making notes on everything and good notes were always precious on the school grounds. Especially the well–detailed ones.

Rukia sighed. She knew he was being used and he knew that too. But starting a war in this place didn't make any sense; they all were going to become shinigami, so they at least had to act like they tolerated each other. And even if they wanted to pay somebody back – there were no strength behind Renji and Rukia, while many of the other students got big families that had their back and money to pay people to deal with the problem for them. Risking a conflict just wasn't worth it.

There was a knock on the doors. Did Renji decided to finally show up and tell her how the whole outing went? She sure was going to punch him for that one it was late as hell and he wasn't even supposed to be in girls dorm rooms at this time!

"Renji, what in the world do you think you're-!" she started. Then stopped.

It wasn't Renji on the other side of the doors.

Pretty much all of the students learned to recognize the new rising legend pretty much on the spot. Even now, with his shoulders slumbered and half of the face covered in bandages. But what in the world Hisagi Shuuhei wanted from her?

Rukia blinked, suddenly feeling a strong grip of cold overwhelming her body and squeezing her stomach tightly. It was known among the students that he already took missions as a shinigami, even if he hadn't finished the Academy yet. One of the most common task of his was to overview the first few times the freshmen spend in the world of living. He probably was there with Renji's team too.

What he was doing here? The question was ringing in her mind, her head suddenly twice the size.

"I'm sorry," she managed to squeeze out of the throat. "Why are you here? What's going on? It... it isn't Renji, right?"

He lowered his head.

Oh no. No, no, no, no!

"I'm so sorry," he said softly.

Rukia swallowed. Alone, she was all alone now. They went here to avoid the loneliness, Renji and she. They decided to become shinigami, because everybody else was dead. They were supposed to lie long and be happy and have little brats gasp in awe at their sight.

"What happened?"

"I'm still unsure," Hisagi sighed. "There were so many Hollows, suddenly appearing all around..."

"But... aren't the places supposed to be safe?" Rukia asked, her mind still numb with shock.

"They are," Hisagi nodded. "All the students are supposed to do is to perform a Konsou of the spirits, after a full–fledged shinigami secured the territory. It was safe, without a trace of hollow reiatsu..." he shook his head.

"I understand," Rukia slowly nodded. "And I thank you for thinking of me."

"I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything for them."

Them. So Kira too... and probably that girl, Rukia never could catch her name. Something with fruits and flowers in it, nice and delicate name.

"...he went down fighting, didn't he?"

Hisagi nodded. "They were amazing. I don't want to give you false hope, but..."

He told her about the unusual hollow that carried a garganta like structure in its mouth.

It was something.

Rukia was still a realist. If it was a garganta, then they were already dead, torn to shreds by the hollows and absorbed into their cursed bodies, imprisoned in nightmare and forced to give the monsters their strength.

Horrendous fate.

"Thank you," she nodded shortly. "For telling me that. You wasn't supposed to, wasn't you?"

"I keep an eye on the new students... you two... you were like a family. You deserved at least that."

Rukia nodded and thanked him once again. Hisagi left and she closed the doors behind him with a soft click. They were made from a pine tree, cheap, but in such nice shape, even after seeing many, many students who lived in here before her. In this place, even stupid doors were an amazing thing. The roof was always whole and the cold wind never managed to sneak inside. They had spare clothes, a true luxury from someone the lower Rokungai, and there was more food in the mess–hall than they saw in their entire lives. It was like walking into a wonderland after crawling through a nightmare. everything they even dreamed of waiting for them.

Was that the price then? For these few short months of having a stomach full and a real bed? Such an awfully high price for something the others called scraps.

Rukia had no idea, how long she stood there, clinging to the doors like she was stupid, with tears streaming down her face, leaving a wet traces on her uniform and the wood. She didn't care much. It all will be gone long before the sunrise.

xxx

Uzumaki Naruto was eleven years old and wanted to be the strongest ninja ever. Right now, he was quite far from his goal. After all, he just failed his exam and for the second time. Then one of the teachers showed up, that nice guy with grey hair who was one of the few that never gave him a stinky eye for no reason and told him a little secret. There was a second chance, a very special quest to bypass the boring rules and get the new, shiny head protector anyway!

Though right now it felt more like Naruto stepped right into something funny.

Mizuki told him that the mission to pass exam was to sneak into the Hogage Tower and grab a scroll from there. Then, Naruto had to get to the Konoha's border, while not letting other shinobi to find him.

Hiding was the easy part. Because people didn't like to notice Naruto very much, he forced them to notice him, pulling pranks all over the village. After the pranking was done - and sometimes in the middle of it - he had to run away from pissed of shinobi. That gave him quite a neat start. And Iruka was screaming his lungs out at him so many times, saying that pranks were a waste of time!

Sneaking into places was not to be in wasn't too difficult either. Naruto lost count of how many times he was late for school, but managed to get to his desk unnoticed (or the other way around. Sometimes the school was just too boring to really care and he was quietly letting himself out).

The stinky part was about getting the scroll so close to the Konoha's borders. Maybe Naruto wasn't among the best students - his scores said he couldn't be further from it - but he knew perfectly well that if something was important enough to stick it right under Hokage's butt then it was well... important. A lot. Would they really risk something like that for a test? Sure, Naruto was going to be awesome, but a Genin. Genin's were not fancy enough for super-secret scroll from the Hokage's tower, they couldn't even get into some sections of the library, because it was restricted!

"This is like the most important missions are looking like, Naruto," Mizuki explained, when he asked about it. "How do you think Konoha is recruiting the ANBU forces?"

"ANBU?" Naruto blinked. "Shouldn't they be Jonins, or something?"

"If they all were Jonins don't you think that somebody would notice the best and brightest of Konoha dissapearing all the time?" Mizuki asked with a smile.

He was right, it would be hard to not notice the connection that was between Jonins not being in the village or on the official missions, while the super-awesome ninja stuff was going on elsewhere. Besides, ANBU were the one who were supposed to do stuff like stealing scroll from the other Hokage's and bringing these home, while the rest of the village was either playing stupid or was just oblivious to the whole thing. Obviously, they wouldn't send a Genin to be to a foreign village and risk an outlash of anger if something went south...

But still, the whole situation stank. Especially that part when the grey-haired Chunin joined Naruto.

"I'm here as an observant," Mizuki said. "You're the boss on this mission."

Naruto wanted to trust Mizuki. He was supposed to, the man was an Academy Teacher and he was one of the few who were nice to Naruto. But the village buildings were already behind them and the forest was thinning. Naruto knew they were getting too close to the border. soon enough, they would reach that place where the grass suddenly swallowed the whole terrain like someone suddenly chopped all the trees off and then the Valley of the End would become visible.

"What's going on?" Mizuki asked, nice smile still on his face. "Are you tired?"

Naruto was slowing down gradually, hoping for the shinobi to not notice it, but well. Mizuki was a ninja and it would say bad things about Konoha if a Leaf Chunin wouldn't be able to notice things like decrease in speed.

"Uh-huh," Naruto agreed. "It's pretty heavy for a scroll, you know?"

"You can hand it over then," Mizuki proposed. There was an odd twinkle in his eyes.

"Aren't I supposed to carry it all the way there?"

"We are alone," the teacher grinned. "I promise not to tell anyone that we cheated a little bit!"

Alone. It felt like Naruto swallowed an ice cube, because there was a sudden weight in his stomach and it was turning his blood so cold his hands felt numb. During the normal exams there were at least two examiners and someone in the shadows to oversee the process. Heck, Naruto spotted more than once a Genin team hidden in the class during the normal tests. Even if it was a challenge to become an ANBU someone other than Mizuki would be observing Naruto's progress. But there was no one, just like Mizuki said.

Oh crap, the realization hit him with enough force to crush boulders. Oh crap, this is not an exam at all!

"Can we stop for a moment?" Naruto asked carefully.

Mizuki's brow furrowed in an instand. "May I ask why, Naruto?"

"Well, the others surely knows that I snatched the scroll by know," he answered, hoping to sound nonchalant. "So, they would probably head right for the border, right? We can, like, wait them out and then decide how to sneak between them unnoticed, right?"

Mizuki looked at him for a long moment. The grass was up to his knees, bending with the wind and filling the heavy air between them with noise.

"That's a pretty smart plan, Naruto."

He blinked, still hoping that it was only a test and he reached the end of it, so the world could go back to normal.

"Sadly," Mizuki continued. "You already know what is really going on, am I right?"

Naruto sighed. So, that was it. He was played.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why," Mizuki snickered. "They are always asking that, don't they?"

"Please," Naruto begged. "We can still turn this around. I-We can tell that it was all just a prank!"

"Oh, Naruto!" Mizuki laughed. "Didn't mommy tell you that is a bad thing to lie like that?"

He chuckled.

"Oh, yeah, silly me!" Mizuki shook his head. With a corner of his eye Naruto noticed a kunai, suddenly appearing in his hand. "Demons don't come with mother in tow!"

"...what are you talking about?" Naruto shook his head and took a careful step back. Stupid grass, it was swallowing him up to his hips and betraying his every move. He needed a change of terrain, fast!

"Wouldn't you wanna know," Mizuki's smile turned more sinister. "Anyway, I have two packages to deliver for my real cage. One is the scroll, the other - you."

"Me?" Naruto blinked, backing off some more. Trees, he needed to go in between the tress. The ground was much more sturdy there, more places to hide, too. "Why me? I'm... I'm a dead last! I'm just a kid!"

"Oh, Naruto!" he shook his head in clear amusement. "That, you never were."

Suddenly, the air was pushed out of Naruto's lungs and his back smacked into some hard surface with a mind–numbing thud. He desperately fought for breath, black stains already dancing in front of his eyes.

Found a tree, he thought, even if it really wasn't time to joke.

Naruto pushed himself forward, jumping as far as he could, his vision still blurry from the hit. A kunai followed in his wake, the blade missing by an inch. A second one darted from the opposite side, ripping a tear in his shirt.

Away, away, away! Naruto desperately pushed himself forward, trying to change the direction of his escape suddenly and as random as possible. Random was good, random always threw people off and slowed them down just enough to give him a chance-

Something his Naruto on the leg and it was enough to throw him off balance. He managed to fell on his side instead of smashing the ground with his face and rolled behind a tree.

He pulled himself back up, ignoring the unpleasant wetness in his sandal.

"Persistent, aren't you?!" Mizuki shouted after him. "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you!"

Naruto wasn't fast enough, he knew that now. And that wet feeling on his leg... he pushed the though away. That wasn't helping either. But there were shurikens in the ground right where he dropped on the ground mere seconds ago.

He rushed back and grabbed all three of them, not slowing down.

The sudden change of direction surprised Mizuki enough that he stopped to look around.

Naruto threw two of the shurikens.

The man whirled around and the first projectile meet his kunai with a painful clang. The second one, however...

The smirk left Mizuki's face as he tore it out of his leg, his eyes flickering with bloodlust.

"I," he said slowly in a menacing, low voice. "Am going to rough you up really good!"

Naruto gulped and squeezed his weapon. The metal was slippery in his sweaty fingers and he couldn't drop it, not now, not when the man in front his pulled a whole new set of sharp projectiles.

He gulped, his eyes widening. All he needed to do was to parry a few of them, Naruto told himself, trying to stay calm. It was almost like tossing a hot potato, only the potato had some sharp edges. If he do it at the just right angle, then there would be more stuff to Naruto throw at that awful guy.

He bend his knees, trying to make himself as small target as possible, ready to dodge.

The shurikens were in the air and then the air was filled with high, unpleasant sound of metal smashing into other pieces of steel... only it wasn't Naruto who blocked the projectiles. There was someone towering over him. The guy was huge and wearing white and blue clothes, an empty katana sheath dangling from his belt, while the blade was shining in his hand.

A samurai? Naruto blinked in confusion.

"Hey, asshole!" the man growled at Mizuki. "You find picking on kids funny?!"

* * *

**A/N:** Hello. I probably shouldn't toy around yet another story but damn, this thing ambushed me. And it's kinda fun to write. I'm probably more smashing the canon with a baseball bat than tweaking it a wee bit, but eh. Sue me.  
If someone cared to read the lyrics instead of scrolling down to the actual story (guilty and charged here, I'm always doing that), you probably can guess where I'm going with this thing.


	2. The Best First Impression

**Chapter 2**  
**The Best First Impression**

Momo blinked. The last thing she remembered was that scary, scary thing getting close to her. And yet, here she was, alive, with blue skies above her. Warm sunlight was seeping through the rich foliage of high trees. The leaves whispered peacefully when slight, warm breeze moved through them, bringing the smell of fresh pine needles and grass.

Was she alive? Momo doubted that there was any grass and flowers in a stomach of a Hollow, no matter how big one.

She slowly sat up and pulled a twig from under her bottom. If she was able to be uncomfortable because of such silly thing, then she had to be alive, right?

"Hinamori? Abarai?"

Momo brightened, recognizing Kira's voice coming from somewhere nearby.

"I'm here!" she called, waving her hand in the direction from where she heard his voice, the twig still between her fingers.

It was a relief, to not be all alone. Wherever they were. Kira seemed to be fine. there were leaves in his hair and Momo saw in his eyes that he was as much disoriented by the whole situation as she was.

"I guess you don't know what had happened to us either?" he asked.

"Sorry," Momo shook her head. Then she looked around. "You think Renji is somewhere near?"

"I'm not sure if I'm hoping for that or for him to be with Captain Aizen," Izuru muttered. "We probably should see if we can find him. There's nothing else to do."

He tried to keep his face neutral, but Momo was very good at looking behind that sort of a mask. Toshirou was pulling that one on her for years. For now, Momo decided to just play along. If keeping a blank face was making him feel better, then Izuru could wear that expression as long as he wanted to.

They didn't have to look too far. Just after they stepped only a few steps forward, there was a crash of breaking wood, a loud thud and a stream of vicious curses coming from nearby.

"Abarai?" Momo called. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" he shouted back, then muttered some more curses. "Just landed on a branch. It happened to be a weak one so, uh… oww!"

"Oh, my!" Kira gasped. "I'm starting to think that threes are your natural enemy, Renji!"

"Screw you too!" was the answer. At least now they knew that Renji was okay as well. For someone who fell down from a tree he looked really fine. Kira really wanted to ask if that was because of the long practice Renji had behind his belt, but decided against it. There would be time to pick on Abarai sometime later, preferably in the Academy dorms, where their misadventure would turn into another amusing story of what can go wrong in the work of soul reaper.

"So..." Momo asked, looking around. "You think we are still in the world of the living?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Izuru shook his head. "I could swear that...whatever it was, it looked like some sort of a portal."

"Can't we check it?" Renji asked, running fingers through his hair, trying to brush away leaves and tiny little twigs and all the other dirt that somewhat got tangled in, during his long way down. The hairband got lost somewhere during the ride and now he was stuck with a mop of unruly, red hair obscuring his vision every few minutes.

"Check it how exactly?" Kira frowned. "We don't have any way of communicating with the Soul Society to confirm our position."

"I can't see any signs of people living around either," Momo sighed. "Maybe if we walk some more..."

"No, wait!" Renji said. "Don't you remember? The lesson about the Spirit Ribbons?"

"How in the world this is even connected to our-" Kira started with annoyance, but then stopped himself, blinking. "Oh!"

The Spirit Ribbons were a manifestation of spiritual pressure of living beings a shinigami could call upon. Because of the ridiculously high amounts of spiritual energy, they were almost impossible to visualize and use in both Soul Society and the Hueco Mundo. But in the world of the living, it was supposed to be much easier.

"Huh," Kira muttered, toying with the idea. "That actually makes a lot of sense. But... we never done it before."

"No time like now for trying it out," Renji just shrugged.

"I agree," Momo nodded. "There's three of us. at least one should luck out and then we will able to tell that we are either in the world of the living or transported to one of the two other places."

That would be something. A place from where they could start finding themselves and their way home. With a lot of luck, they would stumble across a Ribbon of a real shinigami and they troubles would end…

Momo found a comfortable place on the ground and sat down, breathing deeply. In any different circumstances, she would be enjoying herself greatly. The weather was nice, warm but not too hot and the light breeze was carrying the pleasant smell of nature.

She concentrated on the energy inside of her, still buzzing and bubbling, waiting for the next spell to be cast.

It was supposed to be a ribbon, Momo corrected herself, frowning slightly. Ribbons were not supposed to bubble. She tried to imagine a thin piece of red silk, wrapped around her wrists and body, her own Spiritual Ribbon. Then she carefully reached outside.

Momo could feel presence of both of the boys just next to her and tried to now include them in her mental image. Renji's ribbon slightly brighter in color, because of his fiery character, the cloth bending and moving and wandering around all the time. Kira had a darker one. Matte too, because he hated to be the center of the attention. It wasn't as energetic as Renji's ribbon either. Then, when the image has become stable, Momo reached further. Then she gasped.

"Did you felt that too?!" Renji looked at her with a bewilded expression.

She nodded and then carefully picked one of the odd colored ribbons. "This is so odd!"

The Spirit Ribbon that belonged to a shinigami was supposed to be red. A Spirit Ribbon of any other being was just white. And right now, Hinamori was holding something that definitely wasn't white. Or red.

"It's just me, or there's quite a lot of blue ones?" Renji asked.

"It's not just you," Momo shook her head. "I don't understand!"

"And I feel somewhat left out," Izuru sighed. "But yes, the odd coloring is... unexpected. I never heard of anything like that, not even in the fairytales."

"Fairytales?" Momo blinked.

"There they are usually wrapped around each other or even form a knot," Kira shrugged.

"Aw!" Momo clapped her hands together. "That's so cute!"

"But not helpful," he sighed. "What about the strength of the spiritual pressure around here?"

"The blue ones seems to belong to more powerful people," Momo muttered.

"There's one more ribbon, even weirder than the rest of them," Renji added and pulled said ribbon to prove his words.

Kira fought off the pang of jealousy, because it was neither time or place for such things and instead looked at the thing. Later, when they will be chilling out back home, he definitely will bug the hell out of these two for help, but right now, he didn't really need that skill. Instead he just looked at the presented piece of fabric.

Or rather, he gawked at it. "It's yellow."

"That it is," Momo sighed heavily. "It seems that we still don't know where we are. Because this definitely is no realm of the living!"

"Suck to be us," Renji grimaced. "So, what now? Are we going to sit here, or should we do something?"

"Like what?" Kira bitterly shook his head.

"Like following one of the threats," Abarai shrugged. "There's a chance something like that happened before and somebody, somewhere got the answer how to get us back home."

"Do you really believe it?"

"Well," Renji brushed his hair aside, but the red locks knew better what they wanted to do and returned to dangling in front of his face as soon as he lowered his hand. "If it happened, then it's possible, right?"

"Possible it is," Momo nodded. "Are we going to follow the blue or the yellow one?"

"Yellow?" Renji proposed. "I mean, it's fancy and it stick out like we do among the living, so maybe... besides, it seems to not be that far away."

"You're just lazy, aren't you?" Kira snickered. Then he received nudge to the side as an answer.

After a few short minutes of marching through the forest, Momo and Kira decided to let Renji lead. He seemed to actually know how to move where everything was out there to trip a person and created quite a nice path for them.

"Aren't you two too happy about yourselves?" Renji hissed at them, after another twig smacked him in the face.

"Sorry!" the both chirped, making the redhead groan in annoyance.

He wanted to made a snide remark or something, but the words died before they reached his mouth. There was a sudden rush of movement through the thinning line of the forest, a rustling noise of disturbed leaves that completely broke the harmonic melody of nature around them, followed by a crick–crack noise of wood breaking. Also, someone was screaming like a madman.

All three of them immediately dropped on the ground. Well, Renji and Momo did, both of them well taught by the Rukongai itself, while Kira was just pulled down by both of them. Hinamori, using her small size to its fullest advantages, crawled a bit forward to see better, while they just stayed in place, waiting and listening.

There was a kid, dashing forward like his life depended on it. And it did. Another person followed him a fully grown man wearing forest greens and bronzes, with ridiculously big metal weapon of some sort on his back. He was the one doing all the ruckus, while throwing projectiles at the kid. Brat was trying to get away, doing all sorts of crazy thing to avoid the throwing weapon – whatever it was – but his orange clothes were not doing him any favors, marking him as one, big target.

Renji grunted a curse under his nose and his muscles tensed like he was about to stand up and join the unfair fight.

"Stop!" Kira hissed. "Before we do anything we should-"

Renji wasn't listening to him at all. He was already there, calling the attacker nasty names and generally just being stupid.

"-agree on a tactic," Kira finished the sentence with a heavy sigh.

Momo shook her head. "It seems to be a bit personal, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"The way he rushed out there..." Momo muttered. "I don't think it was just because he don't want to see a kid being hurt."

Once again, it was something she saw in Toshirou and now one of her friends was mirroring the behavior. He was always so pissed when seeing people picking on someone smaller or sticking out, because he was too many times on the receiving end. Renji was from Inuzuri, they both knew that. They also knew it wasn't a place for kids, though Abarai wasn't talking much about his childhood.

"You think he's going to be okay?" Momo asked.

"Have you ever fought against him?"

She blushed. She wanted to and even asked an instructor to be paired with Renji at least once, since Abarai was so big and she had no practice in fighting against high opponents but he refused to do so. The skill difference was too big and there was nothing to gain from one–sided fight, the teacher said. So Momo just observed. He was good and breaking out of the kata at random which messed with his opponents who were expecting something completely different.

Now too, Renji seemed to be comfortable with a sword in his hand, looking down at his enemy like he was something unworthy of his attention.

"Who the hell are you?!" the grey-haired man growled.

"Somebody who's going to kick your ass!" Renji answered with a snicker.

Kira groaned. "He's going overboard with the cool card..."

"Do you even know who are you facing, samurai?" the man snickered.

"No clue," Renji admitted with a shrug.

That made the guy actually stare at Abarai in bewilderment, like he couldn't decide if to take it as a grave offense or just the greatest joke ever.

"You fool!" the man decided that the second option was the better one. "You don't know anything, do you? You samurai, you don't have a slightest chance against a high class shinobi like me?"

"A shinobi...?" Izuru mouthed the word.

Momo chewed on her lip. He wasn't the only one who didn't like the sound of that. Was this man like the Special Forces from the Second Division? It didn't fit at all. While the man was wearing clothes that could probably help him hide among the trees really well, he was also loud and clearly a brawler, standing there and talking his mouths off instead of disappearing somewhere in the shadows to do the job from the hiding. Not that she mind very much. Visible opponent was a much better target.

"Look closely, brat!" The man continued. "This poor fool is going to die, all for you! Unless you want to give me that scroll, of course. Then I'm going to spare your new friend's life…"

The boy gulped, his wide eyes shooting nervous glances between both of the men.

"Hey, asshole!" Abarai shouted. "Stop picking on a kid, it's not going to make you a bigger man!"

"You…" the eyes of the grey–haired man narrowed. "You really have no idea who are you talking to, do you? There's not even a slightest chance you could possibly win against someone like me!"

"Dunno," Renji kept on playing the nonchalant, bored bastard. "Wanna find out?"

With a furious growl the man jumped forward, his hand reaching to one of the holsters he was wearing. One swift movement and the air was filled with sharp objects, each of them heading right towards Renji.

Abarai couldn't stepped aside, not with the kid behind him. So he did the next logical thing – he grabbed the kid and tossed him away, while he himself stepped upwards. He was always bad at using his reiatsu to do anything else besides smacking things, but he still managed to harden the air enough to push himself upwards and jump, right above the shurikens.

The blades bit into the tree with a series of loud thuds. Abarai fell down too, using the force of gravity pushing him down to add more strength into his attack, but when he reached the ground, the shinobi wasn't there anymore.

He flickered just behind the kneeling shinigami, a dark, short knife in his hand, ready to strike. Renji managed to block the blade with his sword. Then, in one swift movement he kicked, trying to trip over his enemy or at least break his balance.

The shinobi wasn't there anymore, once again disappearing out of sight only to appear on the opposite side, ready to strike. This time, Renji was ready. He parred the attack easily and attacked, one hit was followed by another. The first one landed on the middle side of the elbow of his enemy, with enough force to make the man drop his weapon, the second one smashed into his shoulder. The impact turned him around slightly. The third punch was directed at his ear, but the shinobi managed to jump away before Renji's fist connected with his head.

He tsked with a nasty grimace on his face. His left hand twitched slightly, but the man fought back the instinct to grab his other hand. It probably hurt like hell. Renji was great when it came to hakuda and his natural strength only made him even more dangerous opponent to face.

Abarai stood up, zanpakutou in one hand, the other slightly raised, read to hit his enemy again.

"Don't think you're the real shit because you have a few tricks up your sleeve," the shinobi growled. "That only means I actually have to start fighting more seriously."

"Knock yourself out," Renji said with a snicker. "Whatever you got, it won't be enough!"

Once again the ninja reached to the holster on his leg and pulled out several of the small, star–shaped blades. In an instant all of the eight shurikens were positioned between his fingers, ready to be tossed at any moment.

"You're about to see something special," the ninja said with a nasty smile forming on his face. "And it's going to be the last thing you will ever see! Shadow Blade Art! Wave!"

He tossed all of his weapons at once. Only for the air to be filled with dozens upon dozens of shurikens that couldn't be possibly there. He had no time to draw new weapons, not to mention there was no way to throw them so fast. But they were there, heading right at Renji!

"Shou!" Abarai growled. A strong wave of pure psychical force smashed right into the weapons, smacking them aside and pushing back right at the opponent.

Hinamori gasped. That's why Renji just stood there, he was quietly repeating the incantation to give his kido enough strength to respond to the attack. It was so obvious, anyone after exchanging a few hits with someone like Abarai would fell back to safer, distance attack.

The shinobi knew that too. Before the first of the blades reached him, he disappeared from his position, only to emerge on the opposite side, holding the humongous blade he was carrying on his back.

"Dodge that!"

Abarai cursed and turned around, barely in time to block the weapon with his own sword. The impact of the hit pushed him back a few feet, leaving a visible trace in the grass underneath.

"Kawarimi!"

Before Renji managed to regain his balance, the giant shuriken dissolved into a cloud of smoke.

"What the–" Izuru started, then covered his mouth with hand, biting into thumb. He couldn't cry out for his friend, not in a situation like that where he was supposed to be hidden, but a shriek almost sneaked out of his mouth.

The ninja somehow hid in now vanishing puff of smoke and used it to his advantage to the fullest. He grasped Renji's sword hand, binding it to his own with a thin rope and forcing it down and to the side, blocking shinigami's other hand. And there was another of those dark, short knives gleaming between ninja's fingers.

"Got you!" He shouted with a gleeful smile on his face, the blade already in motion. Even if Abarai managed to somehow block it with his leg, he still would end up wounded…

"Shakkaho!"

An explosion erupted with a thunderous growl, hungrily swallowing everything around and blossoming high into the air. It tossed both men in the opposite sides as if they were but a ragdolls.

The shinobi, taken completely by surprise smashed into a tree and fell down onto the ground, while Renji managed to land on his knee.

"What the–?!" The ninja pushed himself back up. "An exploding tag?! But I never saw it!"

Abarai chuckled darkly. "Sucker!"

"Is he insane?!" Hinamori gasped. She wasn't the only one shocked, Kira fully shared the opinion. Blowing yourself up just to get away from the opponent was a bit much, even for someone like Renji.

"We can't let this go on!" she said quickly. "He is going to get hurt!"

"I don't think we should interfere…" Izuru muttered quietly, looking at Momo with a frown on his face. It wasn't a Hollow but an one on one fight. People were not supposed to join the duels to help their friends, no matter how outmatched they were. It was an ages old practice that Seireitei lived and breathed with. Maybe it was because the art of swordfight was based on the code of honor or maybe it was because living dishonored was much more serious in the case of shinigami, who lived for hundreds of years. It just felt wrong,

"I don't give a crap about his manly honor!" Momo hissed angrily. "I give a crap about him being alive!"

It would be pretty stupid to argue with that statement, Izuru decided. Dying because of pride really seemed like a ridiculously stupid idea, especially in a situation like that.

He narrowed his eyes, carefully scanning the terrain around them to find the best path to join the battle unnoticed by the enemy. A small miracle he hadn't spotted them already with all that ruckus they were making while arguing. But Renji had his full attention. Good.  
Carefully and slowly, Izuru moved towards a tree. The branches covered in rich foliage were going to keep him hidden right until the right moment. Not many people, not even among the shinigami, remembered to look up while checking the terrain for an opponent and Izuru planned to explore this fact to the fullest.

Imagine stairs, he reminded himself and set a first step above the ground, slowly but surely ascending into the air, his reiatsu creating an invisible path.

Then, the moment came, introduced by Hinamori's clear, loud voice.

"Restrain!"

xxx

Maybe it was instinct or maybe it was something entirely else, but since the moment Naruto left the class after his failed exam, the young teacher couldn't shake off the feeling of uneasiness. Like something was going to happen at any moment.

He tried to ignore it. It was probably just his heart fighting with the common sense. It really hurt to see Naruto being so down. On the other hand, letting the boy just pass because he liked him - it would be just like sending the boy to his death. Even in the times of peace, shinobi's job was still one of the most dangerous things in the world and Umino would hate himself if he passed a child that was not ready yet.

Iruka promised himself that he will later hunt down Naruto and buy him as much ramen as he wanted and then he would look for a way to get his hands on the exams, so they could go through the question on the theoretical part together.

Still, the bad feeling wasn't leaving him alone. The answer didn't come much later: Naruto stole a scroll filled with Kinjutsu from the Hokage's Tower and ran for it.

"This is impossible!" Umino gasped when he heard the news.

Because it was. Totally, completely crazy. Naruto wouldn't turn on the Village. No matter what, he just cared for this place too much!

The shinobi forces were send to search for the boy and Iruka dashed through the village and then the forests around as well, truly hoping to find the boy first. Just what was in his head?

He wasn't the only one missing. Mizuki was nowhere to be fund too and he was probably the last person who saw Naruto.

Iruka frowned. Was he looking for the kid too? Or was there something else...?

He shook his head. No time for the conspiracy theories!

Umino planned on checking Naruto's usual spots, but then decided against it. Contrary to what other people believed, the boy wasn't stupid. When it came to hiding and sneaking around, Naruto was far, far beyond anything his classmates could pull off, especially when he wanted to not be noticed. So, no, the usual spots – the top of the Hokage Monument, the trees near the playground, that training ground close to the Uchiha's corner of the village where the little pond was… they all were just a waste of time. Besides, other shinobi definitely covered all of these places anyway.

What Umino needed, was something different. Unexpected. Though the whole situation was unexpected on the border with surreal, because Naruto wouldn't ever…

What if it was something else? Iruka gave up on logic and just let his instinct choose the path, while cursing his lack of sensory ability. He was always jealous about that particular thing and now, more than ever.

Oddly enough, the instinct was all he needed. It led him through the forest, closer and closer to the wide, grassy terrains that were not far from the Valley of the End, when he found what he was looking for.

Mizuki was on the ground, battered and beaten but still clearly alive. Two men were standing next to him, pinning him to the ground with the legs on his backs, while their long swords crossed right above the back of Mizuki's next.

Naruto - and that blasted scroll - was several meters away, sitting with his back by one of the trees, while a third swordsman was standing next to him.

"Umino!" Mizuki was the first one to notice them. "You must help me! They want to take the scroll!"

"Say what now...?" the highest one tilted his head looking at his hostage, long, red hair obscured his face.

Both he and his partner were wearing exactly the same sort of clothing - an uniform, perhaps - and were good enough to beat a Chuunin. It also looked like only the big one was fighting, Iruka could see the same scorching and burn marks on Mizuki.

"Don't listen to him!" Naruto screamed, scrambling onto his feet. "He's lying!"

"Naruto!" Mizuki growled. "You are already in trouble! We can ignore the pranking, but this one was too much! you stole that scroll and I followed you all the way here! Was hoping to drag you and the scroll back before something bad happen, but then-"

"That was my lie, you asshole!"

Iruka's eyebrow twitched. "Where did you learn that word?"

The boy pointed at the redhead samurai without skipping a beat.

"Hey!" the man protested.

"Rright..." Umino sighed. "Naruto, explain yourself, now."

Priorities, priorities. He probably should deal with the attackers first and foremost, because they dared to not only raise a hand on Konoha shinobi, but were still standing on him while still being on Konoha territory, but... something just didn't fit in the story.

Sure, Naruto was a prankster and both he and Mizuki chased the kid more times than Iruka cared to remember, but it was never something like that.

There was also the other thing - Naruto didn't seem to be afraid of the samurai group at all, even with one of them standing right by him, ready to draw a sword any moment now. It was a girl and a short one too, so she didn't seem like too much of a threat. However in a shinobi world everyone with a weapon was dangerous no matter how they looked like and it was a lesson Umino was repeating over and over again. Everyone in the class was able to recite it by now.

But no, the samurai trio was not considered as a danger of any sort. Naruto actually seemed to be already pretty jovial with the big guy!

"He told me to!" Naruto sniffed. "He told me that it was a super special exam and if I pass I still could be a Genin!"

"Mizuki asked you to steal the-!" Umino choked on the last word.

"I-I know it was stupid, I shouldn't do that, but I really wanted..." Naruto continued his story, choking on his tears. "And then I told him we still can go back and I would just tell people it was a prank so Mizuki wouldn't have to run or anything!"

"From our perspective," the blonde samurai said, his voice quiet and neutral."This man wanted the scroll enough to try and use one of us as a bargaining tool against the boy."

Umino eyes widened slightly. Holding a knife against someone's throat definitely was making the situation much more personal for the mysterious trio.

ANBU definitely was going to show up here at any moment now; heck someone might be already in the shadows, observing them, but not reacting for reasons unknown. He needed to wrap it all up quickly and decide who was telling the truth: a kid on a pranking spree, currently scared out of his wits and hiccupping violently, or a comrade in arms, a person who was his friend for long, long years.

Umino carefully breathed in, trying to take in the surroundings all at once, drinking up all the details. There were shurikens sticking out of the ground and threes around, many of them in all too familiar lines of three, Mizuki's favorite throwing trick. He was always very good with projectiles and these had to belong to him - Naruto hadn't even a kunai on him, that was easy to tell. What Naruto had, was a blood stain on his trousers. It had to be quite deep, enough to drip down to the sandal and leave rusty imprints around his toes and creep under the nails.

Naruto's clothes were torn here and there, the holes clearly made with something sharp. Arms, legs... someone didn't want to kill him, but definitely had nothing against hurting him either. It was about reducing the mobility, Iruka decided with a frown.

"He said," Naruto sniffed. "That he had to deliver the scroll somewhere. And me too!"

"Why?" Iruka asked. "Mizuki, why?"

"What?!" the other shinobi gasped. "You trust that little demon brat over me?! Your comrade? I through... I thought we were friends, Iruka!"

"Watch out for your words," Iruka warned him. It was too close to dropping an S-class secret among the strangers for his comfort. "But yes, I through that too. However, Naruto would never come up with a plan of stealing this particular scroll if someone didn't plant the idea in his mind."

It was still a pretty neat plan, using a disliked person with a knack for pranking as a scapegoat. Many people would buy it without a second thought. Placing himself as a hero that was chasing after the thief and then just disappearing, never coming back home. Someone would surely try to place a blame on the secret Naruto held inside of him. Someone surely would say thing about losing control and the beast taking over and devouring the poor Chunin.

"Why don't you believe me?!"

"You attacked Naruto," Iruka stated coldly. "He's all battered up, but the scroll is fine. Meaning, he was protecting it. And since you're the only person around here who prefer to use projectiles, he was protecting it from you."

"You...!" Mizuki growled i fury, trying to shake the samurai off his back.

The redhead almost immediately shifted his weight, pinning the Chunin to the ground much harder than before. "Dude, if you keep that your you're going to slit your own throat!"

Iruka could sweat there was more than an ounce of panic in it. Whoever these people were, killing definitely wasn't in their intention, no matter how sharp their swords were.

"Mizuki, why?" Umino asked, not quite able to get rid of the pain from his voice. "Why would you do something like that?"

"Seriously?" the man snorted. "You are asking me why? With that thing standing right next to you?"

"Mizuki!" Iruka hissed a warning through his teeth.

And was completely ignored.

"Why do you even care?" the ninja continued, chuckling bitterly. "That thing… it's not even a boy, it's just a de–"

He never finished that sentence. Suddenly, the two swordsmen who were keeping Mizuki pinned to the ground were standing a few steps away completely startled, while their place was taken by ANBU. One of them, a broad muscular man wearing a mask stylized to look like a boar stepped on the back of Mizuki's neck, pushing him into the ground hard enough to cut the sentence in half and make breathing to difficult to talk anymore.

Several more ANBU appeared around them. One of them picked up the scroll and patted Naruto on his head, though using enough force to make it look like a small smack instead. The boy only grinned.

"We are taking it from here," the Boar said.

Iruka breathed out with relief. It was a close call and it definitely wasn't the end of it. Questions were going to happen and they were going to happen soon, both from the ANBU – or even the T&amp;I specialists – and from Naruto and Umino wasn't quite sure which one he dreaded more.

It took only a few moments for the ANBU to pick Mizuki from the ground, restrain him and then drag him back to the village. It was almost surreal, at least from Iruka's point of view. Just this very morning, Mizuki was his close friend and they swapped bad joked between the classes and talked a little about progress – or lack of it – of the students they shared. And now…

The whole situation definitely looked even weirder for the outsiders, at least considering the expressions the samurai trio were making.

"We are grateful for your assistance," Boar said, bowing slightly towards the swordsmen. "We would also like to hear about what had happened here from your point of view if it isn't too troubling. If you please follow us…"

Considering the glances they exchanged, the samurai were perfectly able to read between the lines and caught on the unmentioned "or else" part of the whole thing.

The blond one mouthed something Iruka didn't managed to understand and the big one just shrugged. The girl was the only one visibly nervous among them, her gaze following the masked shinobi.

In the end, they decided to follow without making a fuss, which was quite a relief. Iruka definitely had enough of excitement for today. Oddly enough, Naruto seemed to share his opinion. He wasn't all over the place like his usual self. Though it could be because he was fascinated by the guests slash intruders slash saviors. Or at least the redhaired one, because the guy was cheerfully talking with Naruto. And he wasn't censoring himself.

There, Iruka decided as he heard another vulgarity slipping out like it was nothing, was going to be a very serious talk as soon as the Hokage decided what he was going to do with this whole mess.


	3. Questions

**Chapter 3**  
**Questions**

"Can someone please explain to me, how in the world we ended up soaking our butts in an Onsen instead of, I don't know, doing something?"

It could be much worse, Kira decided. They could end up arrested or even killed for trespassing. They really should consider themselves lucky to bump into a kid in need of rescuing, because thanks to that an Onsen it was.

Which was a pretty nice thing after a day filled with twists and turns, not to mention two fights way to serious for someone on their level. Then there was a quite long, intense run among the masked equivalent of onmitsukido. They were led through enormous, wooden gate into a city with the most chaotic architecture Kira even saw. Not that he saw a lot of them. Right in the middle of it - the village of Konoha - was a high tower. Naturally, they had to climb up the stairs to the very top of it. There, behind another set of awe-inspiring doors, an old man was waiting to ask them all sorts of question. And then some more. It was exhausting even more than all that fighting, so a nice soak was more than welcome.

Hinamori chuckled. "You're whining, Renji!"

The onsen was like any other, with a high, sturdy wooden screen shielding the part for females from the one they were actually occupying. The whole construction was set in a way that let them have a decent conversation without raising their voices too much.

"So what?" Abarai shrugged. "Seriously, guys. We land ourselves into some weird, militaristic society and the first thing they asked us to do is to drop our pants. I don't know about you, but I find it disturbing!"

"Don't be such a drama queen," Izuru rolled his eyes. "This is making perfect sense if you just think about it for a moment."

"I'm butt-naked and without my sword," Renji rolled his eyes. "Of course it makes sense. When you are them, not us."

"Honestly, Abarai!" Izuru rolled his eyes. "An Onsen is a place where the guest are offered not only a bath, but clothes and food too. Even a place to sleep."

And Abarai was right, it was a perfect place to keep an eye on guests you didn't want to have mixed with the usual residents or wandering civilians and merchants, without truly offending anyone. Better that than a prison.

"Think about it this way," Hinamori said, her voice ringing cheerfully from behind the screen. "After all that fighting and falling of the trees and exploding yourself, your clothes really needed to be washed. And it's not like you got any spare clothes or anything at all..."

Renji grunted something under his breath, clearly unhappy with the whole situation.

"He is pouting, isn't he?" Momo asked.

"That he is," Izuru answered her with a small chuckle, which only made Abarai to pout some more. Any more of that and other people were going to start stare at that idiot. Not that they already weren't stealing glances in their directions once in awhile.

All of them, Kira noted, fairy muscular, with skin cris-crossed with faint lines of scars. Some of them so thin they were barely noticeable, the others big and ragged, like someone tried to tear a chunk of the body with a dull blade. They were not obvious in their staring. If Izuru wasn't looking for it, he would probably miss it.

There were other, rather noticeable thing. Many of the scars those people were wearing looked quite old, while most of them had still time before first grey hair showing up on their heads. The shinobi were young and they started much younger – which wasn't too much of a surprise, considering that they meet an eleven years old brat quite proficient in tossing sharp items around.

Child soldiers. Wasn't this a thing considered immoral by the mortals? But then, this wasn't the world of the living they were used to. And even if, there were places where young ones with a weapon were a perfectly normal sight.

Speaking of children – the brat they just happened to save on their merry way through forest decided to enter the pool of water in the most unpleasant way for the bystanders: by jumping right into the water and curling up in the mid-air, just to produce the biggest splash possible.

"I am here!" he declared happily when he resurfaced.

Most of the people in the Onsen looked like they really wanted to drown the kid in this very moment and Kira found himself sharing the sentiment. While there was no avoiding getting wet while sitting in a water pool, getting splashed all of sudden by a big, unexpected wave was a whole different thing. Still, he wasn't sure what kind of reaction he would receive for scolding a kid that didn't belong to him.

"The hell was that?!" Abarai apparently didn't care about such things at all and went straight for the kid, grabbing him by the back of his neck.

"My great entrance!" Naruto answered and tried to wiggle out of Renji's grasp. Then tried to wiggle more energetically, but had no luck, so decided to try another strategy. "You're just jealous!"

"Jealous of what?"

"Of being awesome!"

"Brat, there's nothing cool in acting like a dick!" Renji barked, ignoring the people exchanging glances all over the place. Apparently even in a country of trained assassins, cursing next to kids was an usual thing to do.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. "…you just said a bad word!"

"So what?" Abarai shrugged. "Bad words are just that, words. They happen and they aren't there anymore and nobody really care anyway. It's what you do that really matters!"

"But-!"

"No buts, you just did something that got a whole bunch of people pissed off and for no reason at all!"

Renji continued to scold the kid, the kid talked back and Kira just tried to have his eyes spying on pretty much everything, because he would like to know when the army of assassins decide to become stabby. Right now, they were just amused by the bickering which was, probably, a good thing.

xxx

Apparently, the people here had nothing against mixed groups sharing the same room and it was a good thing. Leaving Momo alone just didn't feel right, not when they were lost in some unknown world among the people they knew nothing about.

"So..." Momo started, sitting down on one of the futons, carefully straightening the fabric of her borrowed yukata. It was a plain thing in uninteresting shade of blue, lacking even a most basic pattern, but at the same time, the fabric was durable and pretty comfortable. "What's now?"

"I don't know," Kira sighed heavily and looked at Abarai, who was currently setting up their bedding on the floor. "What do you think?"

"Guess we should talk about what exactly had happened, before we forget all about it."

"You mean, that weird... whatever it was?"

"Uh-huh," Renji nodded. "The more details, the better."

"You think we might have find some information about that thing?" Momo blinked.

Renji just shrugged. "If it happened to us, there's a good chance that it happened some time before. But we need to know as much as possible."

By all means, they should've done it the first moment they could. The memory wasn't a perfect thing and details were easy to either miss or forgot. Not to mention that the mind had a nasty tendency of filling the blanks on its own, which sometimes lead to utter rubbish.

"It was big, it had an odd pattern on the side and it was the flattest thing I ever saw," Renji grimaced. "That's all I've got. Isn't much."

"I don't remember much either," Hinamori admitted, blushing slightly. "It looked like it was about to eat us and I just…"

"Hey, we get it," Kira smiled. "It's not like we were not freaking out or anything."

They all were at their wits end even before the odd monstrosity appeared and swallowed them up only to spat them into this odd, unfamiliar world. Not being afraid in a situation like that would be completely foolish. They were just Academy Students, barely knowing anything about fighting at all, in a middle of what was supposed to be their first trip and very boring trip out of the Soul Society.

They put together what little information they managed to squeeze out of memory and even create a vague drawing of the beast, but at the moment, they couldn't do anything about it. They decided to move to others, also important topics. Like, planning what to do next, after pretty much lying to the most important guy around. It wasn't like they could just tell people here that they were sort of dead and shouldn't be even visible to most of the population…

"What about people here?" Momo asked. "I mean, they helped us and all, but still..."

Renji hummed in agreement. "They look at you like they're expecting a fight any moment, don't they?"

She nodded.

"They kind of remind me of the Seireitei... but at the same time, they are different."

"Well, they don't life as long," Kira muttered.

To tell the truth, not many things could outlive a Shinigami. At least a stronger one. That probably shaped their perceptive skills in all sorts of weird ways, because one just couldn't live through centuries and not became somehow different in the process.

"They shouldn't be able to see us in the first place," Momo muttered. "Something is just so very wrong with this place!"

People, living people were supposed to be completely oblivious to Shinigami presence. There were cases of people aware enough to tell that there was something odd nearby, though usually is was nothing more than just a Plus, but that was supposed to be it.

This world decided to break all sort of the rules and all the people seemed to be able to interact with them just fine.

"It's pretty convenient, don't you think?" Renji snickered. "but you remember the ribbons, yeah?"

"They were of different colors than usually…"

"And usually there's not as much even normal, red ones in one place," Renji continued. "This place here, it's like spiritual energy central. Like you're trying to tell apart the Spirit Ribbons in the middle of Seireitei – no way of not getting everything in red."

"Not only that," Kira shook his head. "When I was trying to do that trick on my own-"

"You're still at it?" Abarai snickered.

"Well, I do hate to be left in the dirt while you two advance," Izuru send his friend an annoyed glare and then continued. "Anyhow, while I was concentrating, I noticed that not only people are filled with stupid amounts of spiritual power. This, it's even in the air and there's a lot of it."

"How much?" Momo asked slowly.

"Enough that I wouldn't be too surprised if we stumble upon something other than humans with the ability to somehow manipulate the energy."

"…is this even possible?"

"Well, in normal circumstances – definitely no. But here?" Kira shook his head. "Right now I can only guess, but the people here are all Ryoka and not because of prolonged contact with something from our side, but just because they were born surrounded in this stuff. This place… It's like the Soul Society, only filled with humans, not souls."

"…freaky."

Kira had to agree with that one. Hell if he knew what exactly could pop up in a crazy place like that, but things like evolution were definitely having all sorts of fun. He would really hate to meet up with something that his in the dark corner of that forest on the outside. He would probably need to. The monster they really needed to hunt down didn't look like a thing that liked to take stroll through the city once in awhile.

"It's not like we can do anything now," Renji said with a heavy sigh. "Go to sleep, guys."

"You really think we should do that?" Momo bit her lip. "I mean, those people…"

"They might be dangerous, but currently they haven't decided what to make of us," Abarai stretched like a very lazy cat. "So we should use all the time we have on our hands to rest. So, if it comes to the worst things possible happening, we will be able to fight back or get away."

Then Renji wrapped himself in one of the futons, turned on the side and fell asleep.

"…that was fast," Kira commented, raising eyebrow.

xxx

"What can you tell me about our... guests?" Hokage asked.

Umino closed his eyes and furrowed brow, recalling all he could from the moment he meet the odd trio and all of the things he noticed during the travel back to the village. Several hours had passed since their returning to the village with these odd people in tow and the skies outside were already swallowed by the night.

The Hokage himself spend quite some time asking the unusual guests all sort of questions and Iruka already filled his report both on paper and with one of the T&amp;I specialized ANBU, but it seemed like there still were things to say.

"They seem to be pretty oblivious to what exactly shinobi are. However, they had no trouble with keeping up with us when we were on the move and I deliberately choose the speed high enough to give Naruto some trouble. The fight with Mizuki seemed to be pretty one sided, though Naruto definitely can tell you much more than I do."

Hokage nodded, so Umino continued.

"Personality wise, they remind me of our Genin groups. A fresh ones, especially - they like each other well enough, but are far from working like well oiled machine as the more experienced teams tend to do," Iruka continued. "They seem to be from completely different social circles too, so someone definitely had to put them together."

"Elaborate."

"The redhead is definitely a street kid or someone from the lowest circles; he's careful to not let it show too much, but he slip quite often, especially when angered or agitated. My guess is he is a recent addition and is trying hard to fit it. Whatever organization they are part of, it's clearly something considered special."

"Organization?"

"Well, they are clearly wearing uniforms," Iruka fingered the red spiral symbol on his shirt, looking for the best words to explain. "Exactly the same uniforms, so they have to be recruited from all of the social classes. Still it must be considered to be quite a big thing to get in. All three of them seemed to be very uncomfortable with giving the clothes and it was only to have it washed."

Well, not only - before the clothes even saw the washing machine, the T&amp;I had their fun with picking up all the traces of blood, sweat and even bits of fabric for further analysis, but the foreigners had no way of knowing that and were not supposed to learn about it either.

"The blond one has completely different speech pattern. If I was to guess, I would put my money on a clan kid of some sorts."

That made Hogake raise his eyebrows. "Clan?"

"No Kekkei Genkai noted as of yet," one of the ANBU hidden in the shadows stated in a flat voice. "However, I do agree with the observation."

"The blond one is also the brain of the group," Umino continued, nodding in the direction where the ANBU probably was hiding. "The problem is, the big one tend to not wait for him to finish the sentence and just rush forward, while the girl had the tendency to override his command while angered."

Just like a fresh Genin group indeed. The Hokage closed his eyes for a short moment before making his decision.

"Currently I want them to be observed. Discretely. Cat, since they all are sword users, I want you to learn more about their skills."

There was no reason to take away the weapons; the village was filled with people who spend years on fighting to the death. Besides, if temporary loss of the uniform was making the kids uneasy, then taking away the blade would definitely be a cause of lots of stress. Stressed out potential enemy wasn't that much of a good thing, since only a few steps away desperation lied. Fighting with a desperate person was always the worst thing possible. It was so much easier to lull someone into feeling safe and then milk out all sorts of information without too much of a fuss.

xxx

If not for the fact that Gekko Hayate was considered the best swordsmaster in Konoha, he probably wouldn't learn about the odd guests or the manner they suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Or at least he wouldn't learn much more than any other person in Konoha; awhile ago Gekko was forced to leave the ANBU because of health related issue and everyone involved knew that he wasn't going back - a coughing ANBU was a bad ANBU and he, or any med-nin couldn't do anything about that.

Swords, however, were not that popular among the shinobi. Ninja preferred to use weapons that were easy to hide and it was quite impossible with something that long. A katana wasn't working too well as a throwing weapon either, so it was on a losing side, compared to the plain, old kunai.

Hayate however enjoyed the elegance of the longer blade and the guests seemed to share the sentiment.

There was one other thing. Yugao asked him to help her a little and who was he to refuse a woman like that?

"I don't have any visible scars," she explained. "And with my hair I really don't look like a shinobi."

"You want to observe them?" Hayate raised an eyebrow.

"Hokage wants me to," Yugao answered with a small shrug. "But it would be a bit hard if I challenged them to a swordfight myself."

Hayate knew that she was good with a sword because he taught her himself, but his girlfriend was right. Using her sensory abilities to estimate the skills - and possibly other abilities - of the newcomers would be way easier if she had a way to observe them during a fight.

"Sounds like fun," Hayate smirked. "What I'm allowed to know about them?"

Yugao only raised her eyebrows slightly."What do you know?"

"Not much," Hayate admitted. "Wasn't too interested, to tell the truth. Three of them, is there?"

Yugao nodded.

"They all seems to be very fond of their swords. Very disturbed, when they were asked to leave the weapons before meeting the Hokage."

"Well, they were in the middle of unknown city," Hayate muttered. "That's occupied by many, many armed people. It's hard to not be nervous in a place like that."

"Our guess is that these swords hold some sort of a sentimental value," Yugao continued. "However they are just students, so it doesn't make much sense."

"Who would give a student a real blade in the first place?" Hayate grunted. He hoped he wasn't going to fight against complete novices, because accidents did happen even during training and he would hate to get in the way of whatever plans Hokage made for these kids. Getting one of them definitely would make the whole thing definitely worse.

"One of them fought against Mizuki and from what we gathered it was quite neat," she added with a smile.

Hayate breathed with relief. If someone was able to fight with a sword against a chunin – and one that preferred ranged combat and stealth instead of getting up close and personal – then he shouldn't be that bad. Still, now he had another question to ask.

"Only one of them?"

"Somewhere in the middle of the fight the two others decided they're done with this shit and jumped Mizuki from behind," Yugao shrugged, but her brow furrowed slightly. If someone who fancied himself a stealth specialist suddenly got surprised by someone just like that, then the opponent was either much better than expected or got an ace in the sleeve.

Naruto, when they asked about the end of the fight, was stubbornly repeating that one of the sword-kids just showed up in the air, but that sort of jump would be impossible. They already checked the possibility. Maito Gai was probably still in the forest, trying to repeat the feat.

"Well, at least they're clever and won't chop their own heads with these swords," Hayate brushed his hair aside. "So, when do you want me to start bugging them?"

"The morning would be good," Yugao decided after a moment of consideration. "A good night of sleep would put them in good moods. And I need to pretty myself up for the occasion."

He snorted.

"You're pretty enough for me."

The woman chuckled. "You know what I mean."

He knew, of course. There were many kinds of pretty and right now, Yugao was aiming at the one that did not have the stench of danger attached to it. Her hidden claws were not bothering Hayate too much – he liked Yugao because of who she was, not because she looked so damn good with a sword in her hands. Besides, it gave him the chance to see her in more feminine attire than usual, which was also a plus.

It wasn't unusual for Yugao to wear dress, but she wasn't doing it very often. Trousers just made more sense when one was constantly awaiting being called for duty.

Right now however, Yugao's duty was all about observing the newcomers and to do so, she put on her civilian face. She looked pretty in that bright sun-dress with pink, flowery pattern, with long earrings sparkling on the both sides of her face, her long, violet hair pulled in low, lousy ponytail with a thin, pink ribbon. The ANBU tattoo and shoulders too muscular for civilian were nicely covered by open, white sweater with fluffy sleeves.

Hayate couldn't tell that he wasn't enjoying that side of Yugao, currently hanging onto his shoulder. Her clothes were nice to touch, slick and soft and the subtle smell of her perfume was promising a lot of things. Hayate was pretty sure her lipstick was a scented one too, but he couldn't tell for sure. Still, the girl apparently decided to go for the overkill.

"You might ease on the clingy bit," Gekko muttered, trying to shift a bit. "A bit more of that and I'm going to stop feeling that arm and I kind of need it."

"Oups," she said with a small smirk and slightly eased her grip. It was still tight, but at least now his arm didn't felt like it was dying.

"Aren't you overdoing it?"

"Don't ruin my fun," she scoffed at him. "It's not like I can play this role very often. Not here, at least, not with you as the cherry on top."

Hayate snorted.

"So, are you saying that you're just rusty?"

"Nah," Yugao smiled lazily. "The rest of my team is on the active duty snooping around the village…"

"Are you even supposed to tell me this?"

"I might be lying."

Hayate shook his head. A girlfriend in ANBU, while he himself was not fashioning a mask and a little tattoo on his shoulder pretty much meant that there was a lot of lying and half-truths floating around between them and he had accept the fact he would probably never know what exactly she was doing when she wasn't around. On the other hand, he at least was aware of the fact that Yugao had a double life of sorts. ANBU and serious relationships usually didn't mix too well.

Gekko closed his eyes and banished the questions out of his head. It wasn't like he was going to hear any answers and he had a job to do. He already could see the three of them and was pretty sure that at least one of them – the highest one – spotted them approaching.

"I heard you guys know your way around the sword," Hayate greeted them.

The girl jumped, startled by his sudden appearance, but the boys just eyed him suspiciously. So, they had at least some skills when it came to sniffing out hidden enemies. Not that Hayate was trying very hard to hide the fact that he literally came here looking for a fight. It would be quite hard, considering the fact that he was carrying a sword and Yugao already stepped aside.

"And if we do, then what?" the redhead asked.

"A sword is not very popular weapon around here," Hayate let out a tired sigh. "So when I hear about you, using it as your preferred weapon, I couldn't let go of the temptation."

"You want to fight?" the highest one – Renji Abarai, as the newly created mission file said - raised eyebrows.

"A duel would be nice," Hayate nodded. "Nothing too serious, mind you. Just a duel for the pure joy of crossing the blade.

The girl looked at him, not quite able to hide a worried expression, but the boys exchanged glances, before coming up with a decision signed only by a short nod.

"I actually like the idea," the redhead smirked at him. "Swords only, none of that disappearing stuff and multiplying weapons? That was annoying!"

Hayate nodded.

"Swords are the only thing I'm really interested in, so I also would prefer to keep the duel clean."

"That's good," the blond one nodded. "Can I ask for your name, though?"

"Right..." Hayate chuckled awkwardly. "My name is Gekko Hayate and as you can see, I'm one of the shinobi from around here."

"And you use swords, which seems to be quite unusual for your people," the answer came with a small nod. "I believe you already know who we are, don't you?"

Hayate did and there was no reason whatsoever to say otherwise. Shinobi of Konoha were an organized society and it was perfectly visible, even to people who only now learned about the ninja and weren't quite sure yet what was shinobi's place in the world.

"I do," Hayate said. "It was also the reason I decided to seek you out. As you have said, a sword is an unusual source and I suffer from the lack of interesting fight. It's just not the same when you try your skills against someone with a knife."

Or a whole bunch of them, all in different shapes, many of the blades covered in rare poisons. Still, Hayate wasn't lying. He longed for a swordfight with someone he didn't know like the inside of his own pocket.

Yugao, Hayate trained himself, so there was no way for her to surprise him. Hayate Kakashi was quite proficient with a short sword awhile ago, but as the time passed, he had less and less reasons for reaching for the blade, instead using the ninjutsu he picked up during his missions. The Sharingan was a scary thing.

Besides him, there was only Maito Gai left and no sane person challenged that guy to anything at all.

He led the whole group to one of the training grounds. Not the seventh one, since the Monument was speaking way too much about their history and culture and Hayate wasn't sure how much he actually could share with these people. Instead, he picked one of the training grounds near the farms; it was forbidden to use any sort of ninjutsu around there unless there was a clear order to do so, so all of the weapon and hand to hand combat specialists liked to hang out there. It was also quite usual for teachers to pick that place just to send the Genins to help on the farms with the excuse of building up their stamina. Right now however, the place was empty - the Genins were doing odd-jobs all around Konoha, the Chunins stationed around the city were either sleeping out their night watch or hanging around the city, since it was the time when the civilians and all of their shops and businesses were active.

Hayate liked this training ground. No stray shurikens or freak ninjutsu accidents even happened around, the view was quite idyllic and the sky was not hidden behind the heavy foliage.

Yugao joined them right before they walked onto the training ground, all smiles and silly comments, constantly playing with her frilly dress, brushing her hair aside and so on.

The boys seemed to not know how to deal with someone like that, while the girl just put on a polite smile and nodded from time to time.

"Who's going first and ho we do it?" Renji asked, all business-like.

Kira chuckled.

"If you really want to, you can take the first turn."

"I prefer to just watch," Momo mumbled.

"That's cool, you can keep me company then!" Yugao jumped happily and then dragged the poor girl to find a comfortable spot to sit. Even know, the hidden ANBU was probably gathering as much information about the curious trio as possible, taking the advantage of the awkwardness of that poor, young girl.

Meanwhile Kira stepped aside, giving Hayate and Renji space to fight. That one was considered to be a brain of their cell for a reason.

"We're going to fight for a few minutes, unless there's blood," Hayate explained. "I would prefer for it to not show up, since it is a friendly duel and all, but accidents do happen."

Renji just nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"As we agreed before, nothing but the swords and the hand to hand combat. Nothing to lethal, though, we do not want to cause trouble, after all."

Once again, Renji nodded.

Hayate slowly drew out his sword, welcoming the familiar feeling of weight and the hard surface of the hilt. His blade wasn't looking fancy at all. He actually spend a lot of time painting the metal, so it wouldn't shine so much in the sun. Betraying his position with something as stupid as reflecting the light in the wrong direction.

Renji didn't seem to have the same problem. His blade was shining proudly, longer than the one Hayate was using. It also seemed to be somewhat thicker that the usual katana, but that would be just plain ridiculous; it looked just like the swords Hayate was familiar with. But there was that feeling that he wasn't seeing it all.

Was the sword special in some way? Hayate knew the legends and stories about the seven Swordsmen fairly well. They all were armed with very special weapons and there was no doubt that somewhere out there were more of blades with special abilities, just waiting for the right hand to pick them up.

The redhead was confusing, even with the way he held his sword. There was that awkwardness characteristic for people who only started using the blade, still unsure of their abilities. At the same time, the sword felt like it was a part of his body and that was the feeling Hayate up until now associated with old, experienced masters.

They exchanged the few first hits, both trying to get the feel of their opponent, while not trying to give anything important away.

Still, Hayate now knew that his opponent was more prone to fight subtly, instead of using force, like his appearance suggested.

He still made wide, strong slashes.

Hayate made a mistake and took the first one onto his blade and the unexpected among of force send a sharp shot of paint onto both of wrist. Only years of training prevented him from dropping the blade.

After that, Hayate decided to avoid them or let them slip of the side of his sword.

Which wasn't the best idea either. As soon as Abarai's blade slipped down Hayate's sword, the man smirked and used what was left of the impact to whirl around. Hayate had to jump away, just to get away with his head still attached.

Renji's eyes slightly widened and Gekko hadn't miss that. Instinct, that what he had seen.

It was as good moment as any other to bring the fight even closer. Using the fact that the opponent managed to surprise himself, Hayate mixed a punch to the face between the slashes of his sword.

Once again, Renji moved on what seemed to be pure instinct, letting the attack harmlessly slip just a few inches away from him. Hayate smirked at that and attacked yet again. Slightly faster than before, a bit more tricky, forcing the opponent to also up his game.

It was actually starting to be entertaining and, considering the toothy smile, the redhead shared the opinion. Whatever Taijutsu style Renji was using, Hayate never seen anything like that. He started creating a plan that involved mixing the poor sap with Maito Gai, just to see if the spandex freak would be able to work the whole thing out, when not paying attention during the fight kicked him. Quite literally and with enough force to push the air out of Gekko's lungs.

He gracelessly hit the dirt, but the instinct brought him up almost immediately, sword in one hand, the other raised up more to help Hayate keep his balance than to defend himself.

"Crap!" Renji jogged towards him – and how hard he kicked to create several meters of distance between them? – "I'm sorry! I just thought- are you alright?"

"Yeah," Gekko nodded and straightened his back up, deciding it was enough fighting for today. Yugao definitely saw interesting things and she needed some time to put them into a nice, detailed report. No reason to overdo it. "That was my fault. My mind was elsewhere, sorry about that. But it was fun, we should repeat that."

"Safe for the kicking part?"

"You hit like a mule," Hayate agreed with a short nod.

* * *

**A/N:** Hi there! Sorry for the long time without updates, my computer is acting up and not working properly when I have time to write.

Right now the shinobi are putting waay to much effort in gaining intel about their unusual guests and I find it very amusing. They also are creepy creeps, but that comes with the job, I think. Luckily, the Academy Trio are blissfully oblivious and more concerned about the monster hunting than anything else.


End file.
